River's Daughter
by EM Vought
Summary: John Sheppard comes to Jack with his daughter, the daughter of River Tam.


The night was dark and cold and no one in their right mind would be out on a night like tonight…unless they had to be. And the figure trudging along in the snow towards the low lying ranch style house was just such a person. In his arms he clutched something tightly to his body as if the package was dearer to him than anything else in this world. He was exhausted by the time he stumbled on the porch and hit his shoulder against the door sliding to his knees and he weakly hit the door with one hand and leaned against it. A light came on over the door and it opened, the man falling inside. "John?? John!"

Jack Sheppard kneeled down next to his brother. "Jack…" John gasped out. "Take her…please…they'll kill her…"

"What?" He asked as the bundle was pressed into his arms. "John? What?"

"They'll kill her…please…" He breathed out.

Jack turned to hand the bundle of blankets inside to his wife and then turned back, but found his brother was gone. He looked around. "JOHN!" He yelled going out barefoot into the snow. "JOHN!"

There was no answer in the darkness and Jack breathed heavily straining his eyes for what could have happened to him. He turned back to the small brunette woman in the doorway. She was cradling a baby to her tenderly and her large brown eyes looked up into his. He sighed and went back inside closing the door behind him.

Jack paced the room as Louisa sat in her rocker nursing the baby. Their own babies were asleep in their cribs unconcerned with what was going on in their room. He was worried, Louisa was already exhausted taking care of two babies, a third was totally out of the question, but she didn't see things that way. It wouldn't matter if the baby was family or not, she would never let a child be hurt if she could do something to stop it. "Lou…" He began, but he knew it was futile, if he told her they couldn't keep the baby and had to give it to Addison or something…well, she would glare at him and refuse to speak to him until he gave in. It was inevitable, so he would rather just skip all that and let her keep the baby.

She looked up at him smiling. "Yes?"

He sighed, "Nevermind."

She smiled, probably knowing exactly what had just transpired. He looked at the blanket his brother had wrapped around her and was surprised to find a peculiar template type thing. He looked at it and then picked it up. His touch showed writing on it and he blinked reading what it said.

'This certifies that on the 25th day of November, 2517, Ianna Simone Tam-Sheppard was born at 5:15 AM aboard the Firefly class ship Serenity, captained by Malcolm Reynolds, certifying that her parents are River Tam born December 8th, 2500 and John Sheppard, birth unknown." And it was signed by a Simon Tam.

"Louisa…" She looked up and he showed her the…whatever it was. She blinked confused. "This is certainly very strange…but she's John's daughter."

Louisa nodded. "I suspected as much. Don't worry, Jack. We have room for her here and we'll—" She was cut off by a voice.

It was muffled but Jack found another little thing that looked like a photograph except it moved. "Jack…Derek…Jen…if you watching this it means I was able to get little Ianna to you. I don't know if I can possibly explain any of this. I was on top-secret mission for the military…a mission that involved going through a portal that took us to another planet…every planet has one of these portals…one these Stargates…I was on a mission that sent me to Atlantis…and I was there until we stumbled upon a way to go to the future. It was an accident, but I was sent there along with some others and I met a girl there, her name is River Tam, and I never meant for any of this to happen, you have to believe that. We spent only one night together and I never even knew she was pregnant until her brother got the baby to me and told me that there were people that would kill her if they got the chance, and they knew about little Ianna. Please, protect her. Protect my daughter as I can't. Please, I beg you…" Then the message began to repeat. Jack put it down and it went blank.

"Jack?"

He sighed swallowing hard. "She's family, Lou…"

"I know."

"There isn't a choice to be made." He turned around to face her. "Family will always come first." He had learned that the hard way.


End file.
